1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the marking of objects, and more particularly to a system and associated method for selecting a location for marking placement.
2. Related Art
It has become common practice to mark products with labels, identification numbers, and company logos. For example, laser marking (LM) can provide a permanent marking with high contrast that does not wear off or degrade with use. Traditional marking systems however, may have limited marking range and can only be used effectively to provide marking on relatively large areas and flat surfaces.
Unfortunately, many surfaces that may require marking are relatively small and uneven. This is especially true in the medical prosthetics industry, where marking quality may be adversely affected by extreme anatomy. For example, in the dental appliance manufacturing industry, the marking quality on dental aligners may be adversely affected by abnormal dental structures, such as, steeply-tilted molars, or molars having sharply-sloping occlusal surfaces.
Since the dental aligner contour is unique for each dental aligner, printing or placing stickers or embedded identifier tags within the dental aligner material is subject to distortion. Corrections to the aberrations are challenging in the absence of complex mathematical formulas applied to the image to be printed.
What is needed therefore is a system and associated method for locating or creating a location on an object, which may have a limited marking area and/or an uneven surface suitable for marking.